NYPD’s Twitter request for photos backfires

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

A police lieutenant swings his baton at Occupy Wall Street activists in New York, May 1, 2012. This photo is among the many put on Twitter in response to a New York Police Department request for Twitter users to share pictures of themselves posing with police officers.

Associated Press

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 | 8:35 p.m.

NEW YORK — A request by the New York City Police Department has backfired — in a very public way.

Its request that Twitter users share pictures of them posing with police officers has caused people to start sending in photos of police brutality.

The NYPD sent a tweet on Tuesday, saying it might feature the photographs on its Facebook page.

The responses soon turned ugly when Occupy Wall Street tweeted a photograph of cops battling protesters with the caption "changing hearts and minds one baton at a time."

Other photos included an elderly man bloodied after being arrested for jaywalking.

Some respondents did send in the type of police-friendly photographs officials were hoping to get.

NYPD spokeswoman Kim Royster says the uncensored and open dialogue was good for the city.